


Something Broken, Something New

by st4rlabsforever (omaken)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post 2x17, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 03:48:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6549322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omaken/pseuds/st4rlabsforever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Barry returns from the past with the solution to the speed equation, he finds that his actions had consequences after all. </p><p>Tag to 2x17.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Broken, Something New

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to check me out on [tumblr](http://st4rlabsforever.tumblr.com)

_Non est ad astra mollis e terris via._

“How many times do we have to tell you, Hartley? Ever since Evil Wells got erased from existence, no one speaks Latin around here anymore,” Caitlin chided, though she didn’t bother to hide her smile as she gave Hartley a fond pat on the shoulder.

Barry grinned. Even if he didn’t quite understand it, he was glad that at least one good thing seemed to have come from meddling with the timeline. Hartley had even saved his life – had saved all their lives – which was a far cry from the felonies he’d been committing before the Time Wraith incident.

Barry watched him swagger out of the Cortex with a liveliness in his step as he told them about his long-awaited dinner plans with his parents.

There was an awkward silence that followed in his wake as Barry processed this optimistic and good-natured version of Hartley.

“Well, I guess I’m off too,” Caitlin said just as he was about to pull out the USB drive. He had been eager to finally analyze the data that Thawne had given him – anything to give him a leg up against Zoom.

“Huh?” By the time Barry’s brain came back online, Caitlin had already thrown on her coat and was in the process of giving Cisco a goodbye hug. There was something heavy in the air as they hugged each other long and tight, more like two friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time rather than co-workers who occasionally bickered in Barry’s ear as they helped him fight crime everyday.

“See you around, Barry,” Caitlin said, giving him an awkward little wave.

“Where are you going…?” Barry twiddled with the thumb drive between his fingers before dropping it back into his pocket. He knew he sounded confused, but he had the feeling he was missing some crucial detail here.

Caitlin raised an eyebrow. “Mercury Labs? Today’s a work day. Did you hit your head or something?”

“Uh…”

Caitlin had already left by the time Barry realized that he should probably have stopped her. Mercury Labs? She hadn’t worked there since the team had officially reassembled last year, unless...was this another consequence of the time jump? Before he could process that thought further, Cisco was giving him a nod and moving to leave as well.

“Okay, I should get out of your way, too. Call if you need anything, though, you know the drill.” Cisco wasn’t exactly looking him in the eye and Barry felt something deeply troubling settle in the pit of his stomach, like when he’d woken up handcuffed to a wheelchair with Thawne standing over him. Not Cisco, too...

“You don’t want to grab a drink or something?” he blurted, all thoughts of the speed equation gone from his mind. Even to his own ears, he sounded a little desperate.

“Why?” Cisco furrowed his brow, biting a fingernail in that way Barry knew he did when he was nervous or mulling over something he felt he shouldn’t do.

“I mean, we always celebrate with drinks after a big mission, right?”

“Are you sure you’re okay, dude? Because we haven’t done that in over a year.”

“Really? Because the last time I remember was–”

Cisco cut him off, voice quiet but cutting in its obstinance. “I should go.”

There was so much he wanted to say, so much he _should_ have said as he watched Cisco turn his back. His thoughts were racing at a million miles an hour as he tried to figure out where he’d gone wrong, what little detail he’d changed to cause such a divergence in the timelines.

The silence in the Cortex was deafening as he stood alone, listening to the fading echo of Cisco’s footsteps.

 

* * *

 

 

“You’re home early, Bar.”

Barry was exhausted by the time he made it back to the West residence, dragging his feet as he crossed the threshold. Truthfully, it was more of a deep, mental exhaustion that settled in his bones rather than from any physical exertion. Time travel was coming more easily to him now, but it seemed there were still lessons to be learned, if tonight was any indication.

His first course of action was to was to determine how exactly this new reality differed. He’d have to blend in until then, or risk disrupting the timeline further. He could handle this new limbo that his friendship – or lack of friendship – with Caitlin and Cisco existed in, but it would shatter him if he lost them entirely. They had been his first real friends. A high point after a childhood of bullying and shunning. They had shown him the good that he could do with his powers and helped him reach his full potential.

_We were all struck by that lightning._

And yet, there was a sadness in Cisco’s eyes that had Barry dreading what his investigation would reveal. Cisco, who had always been so forthcoming with his jokes and affection, who had called Barry his best friend amid whispered Star Trek quotes. And who had just walked away from him with a defeated look etched in his features. Barry knew that look – he had seen it in the mirror everyday in his quest for justice for his dad. It was fostered from months and months of failure. That Cisco had looked at him that way terrified Barry, even more so because he had shown nothing but fondness when standing side-by-side with Caitlin and Hartley.

“Yeah, turning in for the night now,” he finally said to Joe.

Joe looked like he wanted to say something more, but only sighed instead, and Barry wondered if this too – his family – was something that he’d messed up. He was too exhausted, though, to deal with anymore revelations tonight, and trudged up the stairs before collapsing on his bed. It usually felt like a reward after a hard day’s work, but not tonight.

When he finally fell asleep, the sense of unease hadn’t lessened at all.

 

* * *

 

 

After a night of tossing and turning, Barry ran over to CCPD early. He was distracted by a thousand thoughts of what might and might not be now in this universe, not even properly registering the jabs from Captain Singh about arriving on time for once in his life.

By mid-morning, he was at least confident that the new him wasn’t an evil megalomaniac. Which, Barry wouldn’t have been surprised about at all, given how the last twenty-four hours had gone.

Digging further, he’d found that Caitlin was the only one of them who’d had much of a digital footprint. She was just a rank-and-file researcher at Mercury Labs, though Barry was sure that she could be more if she really wanted. There was almost nothing on Cisco, save for a few articles in the Central City Picture on his work with the metahuman taskforce. Nothing on Hartley or Harry at all. Nothing noticeably different with Iris or Joe.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry ran over to STAR Labs after his shift ended. It was deserted, but he passed the time by mindlessly flitting around the lab, tinkering with the suit, playing around with some of Cisco’s gadgets, taking a couple of laps around the accelerator.

Nearly an hour had gone by before he realized that he was utterly alone. Even Harry’s living quarters appeared vacated, no evidence that anyone had ever lived there. A thick layer of dust covered Caitlin’s workroom and Cisco’s didn’t fare any better. He did find a spare set of clothes tucked away next to the treadmill, and the central display at the main console looked like it had been used regularly.

Had he been working alone?

He pored over his brain, searching for something, _anything_ , to go on, but the memories weren’t there. There were no gaps, just the memories he had always known. Of dinners with Iris and Joe and Wally, Cisco muttering instructions in his ear on his literal blind date with Patty, a misguided adventure to Earth-2.

Barry perked up when a thought occurred to him. He pulled out his phone and rapidly swiped through his photos, heart beating a little faster when he came up short. No selfies from the journey to Earth-2. Hardly any photos with Cisco at all, who he’d learned early on had a penchant for photo-documenting life, and only a handful with Caitlin. All the ones he did have were dated from before the Singularity.

He waited for two more hours, but no one came.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry was trying his hardest to blend in to this new timeline, he really was. But the look Joe was giving him suggested otherwise.

“I mean, I know where his lab is, but if I needed a reminder, where would I find it?” he stammered. Smooth.

He had sent Cisco a text that morning asking him to meet for lunch, but hadn’t received a reply. Normally, Cisco was his go-to when discussing all things time travel, partly because he was fairly knowledgable about that stuff, but mostly because his vibing powers gave him a huge edge in sorting out the different timelines. Also, he could talk to Cisco about anything. That he hadn’t seen him in over a day was unnerving and quite frankly, Barry wasn’t sure who to turn to.

Harry...well, Harry would likely be able to help, but Barry would rather eat a bag of scorpions than admit he’d damaged the timestream after all of his warnings. Joe and Iris would provide moral support, but they had no idea about any of the science. And biology was more Caitlin’s speed than physics.

That was how he’d found himself wandering the halls of CCPD looking for Cisco. If he wasn’t working at STAR anymore, maybe he’d be here. When a couple of laps around the drafty halls hadn’t turned up anything, he’d gone to Joe. Apparently, Cisco was only advising the taskforce part-time now, choosing to spend the majority of his days working in his own lab downtown.

Joe was eyeing him suspiciously. “Is something going on between you two?”

“What? No! There was just something I wanted to talk to him about.”

Joe crossed his arms. “Metahuman-related?”

“No! I’d tell you if it was, but it’s really nothing important. I just thought I’d drop by his lab and say hi, but I forgot where it was...” Barry shuffled from foot to foot, acutely aware that Joe was in full-on interrogation mode.

“Forgot? I wasn’t aware you’d ever visited him there.”

“Right,” Barry corrected himself, “I haven’t, but there’s a first time for everything, right?”

“And this isn’t going to end with you shouting at him again?”

“Shout? Why would I do that?”

Joe’s eyebrow rose nearly to his hairline. “Did you hit your head, son? Why _wouldn’t_ you is probably the better question.”

“What? I don’t…”

Whatever argument he’d had with Cisco, he had to force himself to adapt; he didn’t want to make this worse. So he changed course: “...I mean, no, of course I’m not gonna argue with him. I swear.”

He’d stood his ground and wheedled the answer out of Joe eventually, but a sudden thought came to him as he flashed over to the lab: Cisco had to have felt the change in the timeline, given how badly his flashbacks to Thawne killing him had rattled him, yet he hadn’t mentioned it last night when he’d walked away. Did he know and not care? Did he really think this new reality of unanswered texts and lonely nights in the Cortex was who Barry really was?

He was beginning to dread this conversation.

 

* * *

 

 

“Barry…?”

Cisco looked like a deer in headlights.

“Hi Cisco. Can we talk?”

Cisco opened his mouth and closed it before finally sighing, wordlessly stepping aside for Barry to enter.

“Whoa.” Barry looked around in wonder at the various workstations. He assumed that the one with the dissected-looking goggles belonged to Cisco. The others contained stacks of complicated-looking papers, soldering irons, and circuit boards. The shelves on the walls held power tools and prototypes that seemed shabby on first look, but that Barry knew probably performed their functions more than adequately.

“So, what is it this time?” Cisco asked wearily, not moving from his spot by the door. “Is it just the suit again, or something else?”

“Actually,” Barry awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “I was thinking we could just talk.”

“About?”

Cisco crossed his arms, looking like he wanted nothing more than to be done with this encounter. This was not how Barry was hoping this conversation would go; he’d intended to at least build up to it first, to establish some sort of friendly baseline before really probing this timeline and answering the difficult questions. But Cisco made it clear through his body language – back tensed and forehead creased – that he wasn’t interested in small talk, so he decided to forge ahead before Cisco could kick him out.

“Well?” Cisco urged. This colder Cisco with his jagged edges and blunt disposition was so very new to Barry.

He took a deep breath to steady himself.

“Look, this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out, okay?” He considered the silence agreement. “So, ever since I got back and we defeated the Time Wraith, things have been off. I think I might’ve done something to mess up the timeline, because everything’s so different now.”

“Different how?”

“For starters, you and Caitlin. Why don’t you guys work at STAR Labs anymore?”

“You mean you don’t remember?”

“No! That’s the problem. I just got back and suddenly you and Caitlin are going back to your ‘real’ jobs and you won’t even talk to me and Joe is telling me not to shout at you again and I just...I have no idea what’s going on, but I _want_ to know so I can make this right.”

If he was shouting at the end, well, he’d always been told that he wore his heart on his sleeve. He was confused and frustrated, keenly aware that he had fucked up but unsure as to how.

Cisco gave him a searching look for a long moment before sitting down at his desk and gesturing at Barry to do the same.

“You really have no idea…” Cisco said before shaking his head. “It started after the Singularity. You weren’t talking to any of us and you wouldn’t let us into the lab, so we each did our own thing. Caitlin took that job at Mercury and me and Hartley started our own operation here. Figured you just needed some space but you’d come around eventually, only that never happened.”

Cisco’s voice sounded hollow and Barry felt ill. For as long as he’d known Cisco, the engineer’s emotions had been displayed plainly on his face, the same as himself. This just felt wrong, and the worst part was knowing he was the cause of it all.

He continued after another pause. “I guess at some point, you realized you needed help because you reached out to us after a few months, but you made it clear that you didn’t want us hanging around. Can you believe you offered to pay us for our ‘technical services’?”

Barry shook his head mutely, eyes wide and shocked.

Cisco snorted. “I don’t think you ever realized how offensive that was. But anyway, you continued your solo act, and that’s about the gist of it.”

Barry knew he needed to say something, but the enormity of the distance between them had finally hit him and he wasn’t sure there were words to sufficiently explain himself and apologize.

“...I’m sorry,” he said lamely.

“I tried really hard to get through to you, you know, but you pushed me away every time. I get that you needed space to heal, but we could’ve helped you. We _all_ lost something that day, we were all suffering, but I guess you went and developed a martyr complex, because you thought you needed to carry it all alone.”

“You know what the worst part was?”

Barry swallowed. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but knew he had an obligation to learn these new truths.

“Me and Cait, we rebuilt STAR from the ground up after the accelerator blew. Even when everyone else walked out, we stayed. We spent months getting everything back up and running because we believed in Dr. Wells’ vision for the future. Even if Wells didn’t turn out to be who we thought, our entire lives were there with STAR.”

Cisco sniffled, wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt.

“You were willing to throw away everything we built, Barry. We needed you and you left us.”

Barry reached out a hand, but aborted the movement halfway, unsure if the gesture would be accepted.

“Cis...you have to know that wasn’t me,” Barry whispered urgently.

No response. Cisco scuffed his shoe against the floor.

“I might have pushed you guys away at first, but I was terrified that I’d lose you, too. I couldn’t live with myself if you died because of me. But you guys showed me how much better we were together and I let you guys back in, I swear.”

Still nothing.

“I mean, you had to have seen the vibes by now, right?”

“There might have been some dreams last night,” Cisco admitted.

“See? You know me,” Barry urged. “None of the Barry you’ve seen in the past year was real.”

He only realized after the words had left his mouth that that was the wrong thing to say.

“It was real to me,” Cisco snapped, his features quickly schooling into something angrier. “It was real to all of us, so what do you expect me to do? Vibe a few times and feel better because somewhere, in some timeline that’s not even real, everything turned out better? Yeah, no thanks.”

Cisco stood up angrily, the screeching of the metal chair legs on the tile floor reverberating harshly off the bare walls, before making for the door.

“Wait!” Barry zipped in front of him. “Please, I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean to demean your experiences, because I know I fucked up badly here, but please, just give me a chance to prove to you that I’m not the asshole that abandoned you guys.”

He was practically begging now, but he didn’t care. Iris had always complained when Barry gave her that earnest and pleading look, the one that had her agreeing to do his chores for him when he’d been busy. Barry had never understood what she was talking about before, but he milked that look for all it was worth, praying that Cisco saw how much he wanted this. How much he _needed_ this.

Cisco groaned. “I can’t keep doing this, Barry. Every time you came asking me for help, I hoped that you’d change your mind, but you never did…”

“Just one chance, please. That’s all I’m asking. I’ll prove to you that this timeline can be better.”

Cisco gave a heavy sigh and deflated in on himself. “...okay,” he said. Barry had to strain to hear him.

They stood like that for ages just staring at each other until Barry broke the silence. “Can I?” he asked tentatively, touching Cisco on the shoulders to initiate a hug. This all felt wrong. Cisco was always the one who gave out hugs freely and unconditionally – it was just about Barry’s favorite thing about him.

But thankfully, Cisco nodded and Barry was dashing forward, squeezing him tight like his life depended on it. He pretended not to notice how limp Cisco felt, or that he hardly reciprocated at all, because Barry was happy to take any breadcrumbs at this point.

“Can I stay for a little?” Barry finally asked.

Cisco consented and got back to work, messing with the circuits, crumbling up a schematic with an irritated mutter, even getting out a sewing needle to fix Hartley’s gauntlets. It was soothing to watch him do his thing, just like old times. He wanted to ask about the various blueprints scattered over the workstations, but was content to just let this moment pass in silence, fearful of ruining the tenuous reprieve they had finally reached.

They remained that way for a while, Cisco whizzing around the lab like a madman and Barry watching the show. When he sensed Cisco coming to a finish, he attempted a peace offering.

“I could travel back in time,” Barry offered, though they both knew he didn’t mean it, not after the consequences of the last time. “I could go back and punch my own face in. Talk some sense into myself.”

“You know why that’s a bad idea,” Cisco snorted.

It would’ve made Barry feel a bit better though, beating up on the Barry of the past. Each time he met another version of himself, he hated himself a little more. He was beginning to accept that mantra as a facet of time travel itself.

“Yeah,” Barry murmured.

“Hey, the others’ll be back from lunch soon, so I should get back to work. We’ll...we’ll figure something out.”

Barry grinned. “I won’t disappoint you. Scout’s honor.” He gave Cisco a squeeze on the shoulder before heading out.

There was a lot of work to be done, but he got to planning right away because he had a friendship to win back.

*

Cisco shook his head as the door closed behind Barry. Those puppy dog eyes were lethal.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry started by reaching out to Hartley. Out of all of them, he’d seemed to be the most friendly, which Barry was still trying to process. This new Hartley who wasn’t only batting for Team Flash now, but was infinitely nicer and more compassionate.

If Caitlin shared Cisco’s sentiments on STAR Labs, he was in for a major ass-kicking when he spoke to her. And Harry was withering on a good day, so he was definitely saving that conversation for last.

That was how he found himself knocking nervously on Hartley’s doorstep.

“Harry?”

This was definitely not on the list of things that Barry had mentally prepared himself for when that door opened.

“Uh, what are you going here?”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “Movie night. Did you need something?”

Behind Harry, he saw Cisco and Hartley peering curiously over the couch.

“Hartley! That is, I just wanted to stop by and see how Hartley was doing, but if it’s a bad time or – or you guys are busy, I can come back. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.” Barry was babbling now, but nervous was an understatement. He wasn’t expecting to encounter all three of them, not right after he’d been rubbed raw by Cisco spilling his heart out. All eyes were on him. He fidgeted nervously, trying but failing to keep his face from reddening.

Harry finally took pity on him, thank God. “Just get inside, Allen,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

“Hey, Barry,” Hartley said, flashing a warm smile that helped ease the nervous knot in Barry’s stomach. “We’re about to start _Wrath of Khan_ , but you’re welcome to stay. We can talk after, unless...is it Flash related?”

“Ah, no. Not exactly. It’s not a big deal, seriously. We can do this some other time, I don’t want to ruin movie night for you guys…”

“You should stay. It’s really no big.” Cisco gave him a small smile, which had to be a good sign, right?

Barry settled down next to Cisco as Harry sprawled out over the floor. Once the movie got started, Barry’s nerves calmed a bit. This was familiar. He knew these people. Maybe not Hartley, but he seemed nice enough. And this was just like any other movie night Cisco had hosted, which he often did in the old timeline and apparently just as much in this new one. Barry even found himself quoting lines with Cisco and Hartley, which had Harry scoffing in faux irritation.

When it was over, Hartley turned to Cisco and said “I have been and…”

“...always shall be your friend. Yeah, I know the drill,” Cisco said as he nudged Hartley in the shoulder and the two quibbled over how much of a closet nerd Hartley was, but Barry wasn’t following that argument because his heart had dropped somewhere among _those_ words. The words Cisco had always said to him. And while Barry had never voiced his opinion out loud, he thought they were a representation of how close their friendship had become. It was a validation of their best friend status and he looked forward to hearing those words every single time.

Maybe he was making a mountain out of a molehill, but he’d thought the worst of this new timeline was behind him and it would be all downhill from here. He knew that the changes would be numerous and he couldn’t expect his friendship with Cisco to be the same after a one-year absence, but it still hurt to see.

“Hey, what did you want to talk about before?” Cisco asked.

“Oh, it was nothing. Thanks for letting me stay! But I just remembered I forgot to run some samples for a case, so I’m gonna...yeah, I’m gonna go now.”

And he ran, ignoring the baffled looks he left behind.

He was unsure of how much time had passed, he just ran and ran and ran. When he stopped, he was covered in a thick layer of sweat but didn’t feel any better.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry was moping in the Cortex when the metahuman alert went off. He zipped over to the display and threw the suit on by instinct, already back in front of the monitors before the first ping finished ringing.

Usually, he just ran and Cisco fed him directions in real time, but this time he had to figure out his own route to the scene. He debated calling Cisco, but pocketed his phone and ran. There had to be no doubt that he wanted Cisco back for his companionship and not for his technical services; if his first act in bridging the divide was to ask for Flash-related help like Cisco was some on-call mechanic, well...Cisco might feel used.

When he took down the meta with relative ease , he tried not to think about the silence in his ear.

 

* * *

 

 

In between bouts of crime fighting, Barry did his best to squeeze in time with Cisco. He dropped by CCPD with breakfast for Cisco when he could and waited up for Cisco in his lab at the end of the day. They’d even grabbed dinner at that new Ethiopian place that had opened up last week, and Cisco had welcomed all of Barry’s overtures, but there was a guarded look in his eyes, like he was scared he’d be burned again.

To his advantage though, Barry had an entire extra year’s worth of memories with Cisco to draw from. He knew Cisco would hate the new Star Wars movie, for example, but had been practically drooling over Poe. That the Vietnamese food truck that would open up down the block from the precinct in a couple of weeks had a mean banh mi that Cisco would be obsessed with. And that physics conference headed to Central City next month was featuring a lecture that the two of them were dying to see. It was cheating in a way, but Barry would take any advantage he could get at this point.

On a whim, he had stopped by the outdoor theater last night and picked up a pair of tickets to a showing of _Blade Runner_. He’d been meaning to do it before the time travel fiasco with the speed equation, and he was fairly certain the old Cisco would’ve loved it. He crossed his fingers.

The two of them were sat with their drinks in Jitters when Barry pushed the tickets towards Cisco, who just stared at them in silence.

“Actually…” Cisco said, and Barry’s heart sank.

Cisco reached into his pocket and pulled out two identical-looking tickets. “I was at the theater with Dante the other night and saw the posters. Thought of you, so…”

“Yes! I’m down if you are.” Barry couldn’t keep the grin off of his face.

“Deal,” Cisco said with a mirroring grin.

They argued for the next hour over whether Deckard was a Replicant or not.

 

* * *

 

 

Somewhere during the last couple of sessions in the suit, Barry had torn the fabric around his torso. Not wanting to bother Cisco, he did his best to stitch it himself, but the threading turned out all lopsided. Seamstress he was not.

The treads on the boots began to wear out but he learned to deal with it.

Even his gloves were worn down from all of the punching.

He would never turn his back on the people of Central City; while he didn’t do all he did for the hero worship, he was swimming in validation since donning the suit. From the almost daily puff pieces in the papers to the Flash paraphernalia, his self esteem had skyrocketed. And yet, without Caitlin and Cisco and the others out there to back him up, it was all less fulfilling. He had no idea what the past Barry in this timeline was thinking, but he wanted to throttle him in frustration. For pushing away his best friends. For being too dense to understand that he didn’t have to do everything himself. And probably for yet unseen horrors, too.

He didn’t realize he was passing out until his vision blurred and closed in and he was skidding to a halt on the pavement.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry winced when he opened his eyes.

“Wouldn't do that if I were you.”

“Cisco?”

He tried sitting up and groaned. “Wha’ happ’nd?”

“Was kind of hoping you could tell me, dude.” Cisco held up the suit. “These seams? I mean, they’re not even pressed! And there’s like five tears down the middle. What were you even doing?”

“There was a bank robbery. I was on my way back to the lab...how did you find me?”

“I’ve got the suit set to send me an alert when your vitals are off. And you know that thing’s got GPS, so…”

Barry did know. It floored him that Cisco could still be so dedicated to him after everything. After how badly this timeline’s Barry had treated him. Barry had no recollection of it and he hated it, but traveling back to Thawne’s reign was his decision and he had to deal with the aftermath.  

“Thank you,” Barry said sincerely. “You really don’t have to worry about me though, I’ve got it under control.”

“Under control?! You could’ve died and I wouldn’t’ve known until the tracker led me to your dead body. Why didn’t you just ask for backup? This thing looks like it’s been jossed to hell for weeks now.”

“Didn’t want to bother you…” Barry mumbled.

“Is that what you think you’d be doing? Bothering me? I told you I wished the team was back together because news flash: I _like_ being a part of this. And it’s not going to work if you keep shutting me out.”

“You don’t think I know that?” Barry didn’t mean to raise his voice, but it couldn’t be helped. He tried to move closer to Cisco and grimaced at the pain that shot up his side. “This other Barry – _me_ – he _used_ you, and I don’t want you to ever feel like I only want you around because you can stitch up the suit or work the comms.”

Cisco sighed. “That’s because the only time you ever let me and the others into STAR was when you absolutely had no choice but to ask for our help. Then you kicked us out again when the fights were over. We can be friends _and_ I can help you with the Flash stuff, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. So what’s this really about?” He sat at the edge of the bed and gave Barry’s hand a comforting squeeze.

“I...it’s this,” Barry gestured between them. “It’s exactly what you just said. It feels like I barely know you anymore.” It was completely true and one of the most horrifying things he could imagine. For as long as he’d known Cisco, the two of them had been close as peas in a pod. Iris was his best friend after a lifetime of building up that title, but somehow Cisco had come crashing into his life and become one of his closest friends in just a few short weeks. This reality where they tiptoed over each other like shards of glass was killing Barry.

“There’s not exactly a rulebook for this,” Cisco muttered.

Barry laughed, but it was a fragile little thing. “That’s an understatement.”

“Feels like I’ve missed out on a whole year of your life too. Those adventures you guys went on have me thinking that this other me must’ve been pretty awesome.”

“It’s true!” Barry said earnestly. “There were some missteps, but we were a team. We can _still_ be a team if you want. It’s what I want.” He trailed off at the end, playing with the hem of the sheets, not quite meeting Cisco’s gaze.

Cisco was still for so long that Barry wasn’t sure he’d answer, but he finally said “I don’t know if I can be the person you knew, not after...not after everything. But maybe we can build something new?”

It was as much forgiveness as it was an olive branch and Barry found himself relaxing by degrees. “I’d like that a lot,” he said.

Cisco beamed.

“First order of business, then,” he said, clapping his hands together and scooping up the suit. “You got photographed in this.”

He tossed Barry a rolled up newspaper, the front cover of which displayed the Flash in glorious high resolution, mediocre stitching, tears, and all.

“We can’t have people thinking our suit’s second class, dude. Gotta bring your A-game next time.”

Barry would’ve feigned outrage, but he was distracted by the way his heart fluttered at the mention of those little words. _Our suit_.

 

* * *

 

 

“So, what exactly do you want me to do?” Cisco asked him. His eyebrows were creased and he was giving Barry a dubious look.

“Just try vibing on me. However long you want.” Barry couldn’t help how eager he sounded, because he really wanted this to work. “We’ve got a whole year of memories to fill, and I’m right here if you have any questions about what you see.”

“Well, okay. Guess it couldn’t hurt, right?”

Score.

Barry nodded.

“How should we do this?” Cisco reached out towards him but stopped short of making contact, unsure of where to touch.

“Here,” Barry said as he clasped Cisco’s hand in his. He tried not to shiver at the contact, though his body let off a few involuntary tremors. Hopefully, Cisco wouldn’t say anything.

Apparently, that wouldn’t be a problem though because Cisco’s eyes had gone blank and taken on that glossy look they did when he caught a vibe. Barry sat as still as possible, not wanting to break Cisco’s concentration. His watch indicated that minutes had gone by, which he was certain was the longest he had stood still since gaining his super speed. It was hard, like watching molasses drip, but Barry reminded himself that this was worth it if Cisco got to experience those missing weeks firsthand. To see that they had a friendship Barry was committed to maintaining in this new timeline.

Barry first counted all the books on Cisco’s bookshelf. Twice. When only a couple of seconds passed, he stopped in favor of tallying the number of stars he could see on Cisco’s Milky Way tee. Finally, he moved on to trying to count the individual hairs in Cisco’s beard.

Wait. Beard? He almost did a double-take when he comprehended what he was seeing. It was the first time since meeting him that Barry had seen his facial hair grown out, not that it was a bad look.

Barry shook his head. _Focus_. There were much more important things to think about than Cisco’s facial hair (though by his count, there were 15,841 hairs to the tee).

He wondered what Cisco was seeing. It was true that there were some trying moments – Vandal Savage destroying Central City, for starters – but he hoped Cisco saw how much Barry enjoyed having his company. Exploring the STAR Labs of Earth-2 together was probably one of his favorite memories and he was honestly a little upset that he no longer had the photos to prove it.

A few more minutes passed in silence before Barry started to become concerned. He didn’t want to interrupt anything, especially if Cisco had latched on to a particularly fond memory, but was it supposed to take this long?

Barry was debating giving Cisco a nudge when he sucked in deep breath and blinked rapidly, pulling away as the faraway look in his eyes retreated. Barry’s hands felt cold in the absence of Cisco’s warm fingers.

“Dude, did King Shark really wreck your house?”

“You have no idea. And Joe made me clean it all up, too.”

Cisco snorted. “You’re a speedster. It couldn’t have taken you more than a few minutes.”

“I have super _speed_ , not strength. I was sore for like, an entire week after.”

“Poor you. That water trick was awesome though!” Cisco looked so excited, waving his arms to reenact the blasts of lightning and the whirlpool.

Barry beamed.

“So...it was good?” He asked.

“Definitely.” Barry let out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding. “What other fun adventures are you holding back from me?” Cisco asked with a playful lilt to his voice.

“Let’s see.” Barry rifled through his mental catalogue of all the crazy things that had happened to them before snapping his fingers enthusiastically. “There was that time you dated an Egyptian hawk goddess. Did that happen here?”

“No way,” Cisco said, voice filled with child-like wonderment. “ _No way_ , you can’t be serious!”

He stared at Barry in awe when he realized it wasn’t a joke. “Dude...was she hot? How did we meet? You’re gonna have to show me next time.”

 _Next time_. Something in Barry’s chest loosened as he indulged Cisco’s barrage of questions.

 

* * *

 

 

They had barely settled down on the grassy pavilion with their food when a loud explosion rocked the projector screen.

Throngs of people began to flood towards the parking lot screaming bloody murder as a literal burning man rampaged the speakers and set fire to the concession stand.

Barry groaned. “For real?” The movie had barely even started and he’d been looking forward to getting Cisco’s take on _Blade Runner_ for weeks now.

He dashed away to put on the suit while cursing any gods in existence that what little time he got to spend with Cisco these days had to be crashed by whatever meta had decided to go on a murderous rampage this week. Couldn’t he attack another city? No, that wasn’t right. Barry knew he’d still fight to protect the innocent from the metahumans even outside of Central City, but it really felt like the universe was conspiring against him here.

He was back in front of Cisco a second later. “What’s our plan of attack?”

“‘Our’? Oh – right! Uh, hang on.” Cisco whipped his phone out. “I can do the comms from here. Maybe try a direct approach first?”

Barry nodded and sprinted off. The only slight problem was that it was a little hard to get anywhere near someone who was surrounded by an enormous ball of flames. He told Cisco as much with a grunt, having just narrowly avoided a blast of fire to the face.

“Try funneling some wind at him. You’ve got to hit him from all sides.”

“Got it.”

“Wait, there are a couple of civilians at your 10 o’clock. Get them first.”

Despite the direness of the situation, there was also an overwhelming sense of right in having Cisco in his ear again and finding that they still worked together seamlessly. He dropped off the family of four to the police, who by now were assembling just beyond the park boundaries, before giving another go at offense.

“Hey, do you think creating a vortex around him would work?”

“Worth a shot, but you’re gonna have to run pretty fast.”

His body was drenched with the effort. It was far harder than neutralizing Clyde Mardon’s tornado had been, and it seemed like the vortex was only fanning the flames.

“Crap, it's not working.”

“The whole park’s going to be on fire at this rate,” Cisco said.

“What do we do?” There was a long pause as Barry took a moment to wipe the sweat dripping down into his eyes. “Cisco?”

“...could you get me close to him?”

“What? He’ll incinerate you!”

“I've got a plan. Trust me.”

Well, when he put it like that…he picked Cisco up easily, gently. Usually, he picked civilians up in a rush with little thought to positioning or posture, but he waited a few seconds this time, Cisco’s weight a warm cloak around his body as he reached his arms around Barry’s neck to anchor himself. His skin burned at the touch even through the leather of the suit.

“Hang on,” Barry said as a courtesy before running.

And then they were there, the flames in front of them a conflagration that roared as it reached a fever pitch.

“Get behind me!” Cisco was practically shouting over the inferno.

“Are you out of your mind?!”

Cisco just shoved him back though. “Cover your ears.”

Before Barry could ask why or raise a protest, because this was crazy, there was a deafening _bang_ , a brush of wind across his face, and the meta was out cold a good hundred feet away. Barry was so shocked even his speed hadn’t helped him process what had just happened. All he knew was they’d won and Cisco was standing in front of him with a hand splayed out towards the unconscious body.

“Surprise,” Cisco said weakly.

*

“What was that, Cisco?”

Barry kept his voice soft as he sat down beside Cisco, careful not to spook him. He had looked like he’d wanted to turn tail and run a few minutes ago, but Barry had made him wait until he’d dropped the meta off in the pipeline.

Cisco swallowed before speaking. “Do you remember Reverb? Did that happen in your timeline too?”

At Barry’s nod, he continued: “Seeing him shoot those sonic waves made me realize that I could probably do the same thing. Hartley and Harry have been helping me get a handle on them, but this was the first time I ever used them on another person before…”

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Barry broached.

“What's there to talk about?”

“You have superpowers, dude! And not just the vibes anymore, but actual crime fighting powers. I mean, that’s awesome, right?” He tried to keep the excitement from creeping into his voice, but this was a huge development. Generally, Barry was a one-man show, though that was more due to there being no other vigilante superheroes in Central City than any disposition to solitude – he needed his team and he knew it. Defenseless civilians never belonged in the crossfires of combat, of that Barry was absolutely certain, but Cisco had just demonstrated himself to be anything but, and the prospect of having backup in the field was thrilling. That this was _Cisco_ just made it even better.

“You didn’t hear Reverb that day. He told me I could be a God...hell, I could shatter your entire nervous system with thought.”

“Cisco, you won’t turn _evil_ just because you have these powers…”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Cisco said firmly. “I know Reverb was just a bad apple. Harry gave me a whole big speech on it, can you believe he had it in him?”

Cisco picked at the fringes of his jeans, no doubt a nervous habit. Barry put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, urging him to continue.

“Hartley thinks I could shake apart the entire multiverse if my powers get stronger. You and me, Iris, Joe, and Wally. Hartley. Not just on this Earth, but every single one of them, gone in an instant.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Barry said immediately. The very thought of Cisco being anything other than pure goodness was ludicrous.

“Of course not. It’s more power than any human should have, though. What if someone forced me to use them on innocent people?”

Barry shuddered, all thoughts immediately going to Eiling. Judging by the look on Cisco’s face, he was imagining the same scenario.

“Even if I was being forced or–” Cisco’s breathing was shaky “–or coerced, that would still make me evil. No one would think otherwise.”

Barry sensed that this conversation was about much more than just Cisco’s newfound powers now, so he moved directly in front of Cisco and crouched down so he was at eye level.

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, but I’ll say it until you finally believe me: what happened with Snart wasn’t your fault and it doesn’t make me think any less of you. Not now, not ever.”

“And what if it happens again? This isn’t just about fancy guns anymore or technology falling in the wrong hands. I can kill people with my _bare hands_ , Bar.”

It was the first time since the Time Wraith that Cisco used that nickname and it caused his heart to skip a beat. Barry knew it was pathetic, but he didn’t have many friends – just Iris and maybe Oliver and Felicity before the accelerator explosion, and Cisco and Caitlin after. Small things like nicknames and labels were just important to him.

“You have all of us standing behind you, and don’t forget that I’m a meta just like you. I think the terror of being used as someone else’s pawn just comes with the territory.”

Thoughts of Eobard and Jay came unbidden, but he pushed them back down because this had to be about Cisco.

“I can help you work through this...if you’ll have me.”

He hoped his words conveyed what he was too cowardly to actually say: _Trust me_. _After everything, trust me one more time._ Somehow, ‘no, I don’t want your help’ hurt less than ‘no, I don’t trust you’ even if he knew the two amounted to the same thing in the end.

“Sure,” Cisco said quietly, then a bit louder, “that’d be cool.”

It would be, Barry had no doubt.

“Want to show me what other badass things you can do with those powers?”

Cisco grinned. “Duh. Not here though, we have an audience.” He gestured to the police barricades where Barry noticed the throngs of bystanders and reporters snapping photos. None of them could’ve possibly heard anything, but this was still a private moment.

He wasn’t sure if the heat was from the residual flames still burning or the blush creeping up his cheeks.

“Let’s get out of here.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Wait, wait, wait. You challenged a Hells Angels member to a drink off?” Cisco asked after letting go of Barry’s hand. “Oh my God, the look on his face. You must’ve done at least twenty shots.”

He doubled over with laughter as Barry cracked a sheepish grin.

“Hey, my metabolism kept you from becoming a permanent stain on that sidewalk.”[1]

“Touché. These vibes are crazy, man. I just wish I could share something with you, ‘cause it feels like you’re getting the short end of the stick here.”

“So share something, then. I’m all ears.”

Cisco appeared to consider that for a few seconds before he said, “I got Harry and Hartley to go clubbing with me. Turns out Harry dances like a robotic chicken. Hang on, I took a video.”

Barry gave a boyish laugh at the rigid moves Harry pulled. “I’m not much better, though.”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Huh?”

“Remember that time you and Cait caught me trying to have a disco party? I’m still not sure if I’ve forgiven you guys for that. I mean, it was like you were falling asleep!”

“Rude.” Barry was slouched back on the couch, one arm hanging over the side as Cisco sat on the floor. He shot off little bolts of lightning intermittently at the dartboard hanging next to the front door (they’d all repeatedly told him it was a terrible place to put it, but Cisco continued to ignore them anyway).

“Wait, do that again,” Cisco said.

He let the electricity slip from his fingertips as Cisco reached a hand out. A loud clap of ‘thunder’ followed, the sound waves reverberating throughout the apartment.

They both paused, looked at each other, and proceeded to repeat the process. _Zrrttt_. _BOOM. Zrrttt. BOOM. Zrrttt. BOOM._

“Hah!” Cisco shouted before dissolving into giggles again.

One of the neighbors knocked angrily on the adjoining wall, and pretty soon Barry was laughing right along with him. They heaved as full belly laughs choked them, not a word said between them while they gasped for air.

Barry reached out to give Cisco a playful punch on the shoulder when a stray arc of lightning discharged. Almost faster than Barry’s eyes could follow, Cisco yelped and launched up from his spot on the carpet

“Oh god, I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?”

“Nah, just tickled a little,” Cisco said as he rubbed his side.

Wait…

“Dude…” Barry said like he was seeing Cisco for the first time. His lips slowly ticked up in a smirk as his brain worked double time to plan out his revenge; Cisco had always had the upper hand in pulling pranks on the whole team, even if that felt like a lifetime ago now.

The look on Cisco’s face told Barry that he full well realized his mistake, eyes wide and casting conspicuous glances at his goggles.

He let out a desperate whine when Barry managed to snatch them first. Barry wasn’t really sure what sort of advantage they would give Cisco in a fight on the fly, but Cisco seemed to think they’d help so he flashed them to the other side of the room and into the wall for good measure. He was back before Cisco could blink, giving his fingers a threatening wiggle and vibration.

A whimper, and Cisco made a dash for the door. And because Barry was a bit of an ass, he let Cisco reach it before darting in front.

“It’s your grave.” He couldn’t really be blamed for how smug he looked.

Cisco braced himself.

And okay, maybe this was an unfair use of his powers, because before Cisco could move any further, he had dashed behind him and slipped wiggling fingers under Cisco’s arms, throwing in an occasional vibration just because he could.

He waited for Cisco’s nerve endings to register the assault, which, while it only took a fraction of a second, felt like forever to him. Finally, Cisco flailed as he snorted out a laugh, which was Barry’s cue to kick it into overdrive, zipping all around with wriggling fingers and easily maneuvering around Cisco’s uncoordinated and frenzied defenses. When he sensed a weak spot as his fingers skittered over the flat planes of Cisco’s stomach, the laughter crescendoing significantly, he moved in for the kill.

He almost felt bad – Cisco didn’t stand a chance – but he couldn’t be expected to stop now, not with the wide smile plastered on Cisco’s face and the boisterous laughter echoing off the walls. Barry hadn’t heard Cisco laugh like that in weeks, and he was willing to bet it was more like months in this new timeline.

He was content to live in this moment forever, but when Cisco let out a wheeze, he figured that was his cue to ease off.

“Ugh, worst ever,” Cisco groaned. The effect was diminished though, given that he couldn’t get the words out without a stray giggle also escaping. Barry watched his chest bob up and down as he sucked in precious breaths of air.

They were sprawled out on the floor, Cisco on his back and Barry leaning back on his elbows.

“Seriously, so, so unfair, dude.”

Barry couldn’t resist reaching over and giving a quick poke as he pulsed his finger. He yelped when he got a smack on the shoulder in retribution, which he figured he might’ve deserved a little.

“You’re incorrigible,” Cisco whined as he plopped his head onto Barry’s chest.

Barry tried to ignore the stutter of his heart at the contact.

Eventually, reluctantly, Barry stood up. They’d lost track of the time and it was already well past 4 A.M. when he stretched out taut muscles in his back, feeling lighter than he had in awhile.

“Stay,” Cisco said. “You can take the couch.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Neither of them acknowledged that it would only have taken Barry a few seconds to run home.

 

* * *

 

 

They fell into a routine: Barry dropped by Cisco’s once a week and they continued their vibing sessions, talking about everything and nothing, Cisco harping on about an embarrassing error Hartley had made in his calculations, Barry telling him about the odder non-meta-related cases at work.

Yet, to Barry it felt like he was still relegated to some purgatory, like he was out of the no man’s land but still awaiting final orders to return home. And Barry knew he dealt too often in absolutes – he’d been told so multiple times by Iris – but he needed to know definitively when he was forgiven. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, if it would be some sudden thing, or if it would happen gradually until one day he realized that the bridge had been rebuilt. He just knew that they weren’t there yet.

Time was, he used to show up at Cisco’s place at all hours of the night. Sometimes, he’d had trouble sleeping when the memories of Zoom plagued him and they put on one of the classics (Miyazaki or _Firefly_ was always a safe bet). Once, Cisco had even tried to teach him some of the theory behind accelerator physics (he’d ended up frustrated when Barry couldn’t follow along with his rambling; it had been fascinating when he’d read about it in the papers or Dr. Wells’ book, but the finer points were another thing entirely).

Everything was too rhythmic now. Once a week and Barry felt like he had to ask permission before they hung out. There was no spontaneity anymore. He had a tendency to worry and overthink things even before becoming a speedster, so the rapid pace of his thoughts did nothing to mitigate the growing concerns about his social life.

Which led him to his next problem: it was near impossible to get in time with Cisco without Hartley tagging along too, and whenever the two of them were in the same room together, they had a habit of veering off on scientific tangents that no one else understood. Not that Barry didn’t like Hartley well enough, because he seemed to be a stand-up guy now, but that wasn’t the point.

Barry had invited Cisco to that physics conference that was slated to be in town this week, to which Cisco had enthusiastically informed him that he and Hartley had already bought their passes and Barry was more than welcome to join them. Iris would be there as well to cover the event for the _Picture_.

*

“Dude, stop being such an asshole.”

“I’m not! He was going to be the lead engineer on CERN’s new beamline project. People could die if he does this wrong,” Hartley quipped back at Cisco.

He had caused a grown man to cry actual tears when he’d relentlessly poked holes in the results of his experiment.

“Still, you could’ve been nicer about it,” Cisco groused.

Hartley was hardly paying him any attention though, eyes already transfixed by the pulsing crowd of researchers gathered all around them.

“Whoa, check it out.” Hartley pulled Cisco down one of the aisles of poster presentations while Barry and Iris rushed to keep up.

“Wow, that’s a really high Lorentz force,” Cisco said. His eyes moved every which way as he worked to digest the presentation in front of him.

“Right, so then the quadrupoles need to be stronger,” Hartley added.

The nervous-looking presenter nodded.

“Oh! And you’d just need to modify--”

“--the Hill equation. Only slightly, to--”

“--compensate for the increased curvature!” Cisco bounced on the heels of his feet as he and Hartley bounced ideas back and forth.

“Have you thought about what the transfer matrix will look like?” Hartley asked politely.

“Yes, we found that it actually takes a form similar to the Gaussian beam.”

Hartley nodded. “Fascinating.”

“Is that like taking the determinant of the matrix?” All eyes turned to Barry. Cisco didn’t appear to follow that idea and Hartley just looked baffled. “Because the beam parameter reduces, right…? Or maybe not, don’t mind me…” he said bashfully, acutely aware of the blank stares he was receiving.

He was smart, but chemistry was more his forte. Physics, especially the hellish brand that STAR Labs was fond of, was like a foreign language to him. He’d done his best to cram the night before, but he seemed to forget it all just as quickly as he’d learned it.

“Err, anyway, this looks really promising. Can you send us the paper when it’s finished?” Cisco asked.

The discussion fizzled out after a few more minutes, and the bespectacled researcher stared in wonder at the duo. “Who _are_ you? Are you famous?”

But they had already dashed off to analyze the next display.

Barry jumped when Iris elbowed him in the side. “Penny for your thoughts?” She questioned playfully.

“What? It’s nothing.”

Iris didn’t look like she believed him for a second.

“Alright, we’re taking a break.”

Barry reluctantly followed her over to the others.

“You boys want anything to eat?” she asked. “We’re heading over to the cafeteria now.”

Hartley blinked in confusion.

”When did you guys get here?” Cisco asked.

Iris rolled her eyes affectionately. “Only since I drove you here this morning. Last chance, what’s is gonna be?”

“Just get us...something. Please,” Hartley said, passing a crumpled wad of bills to her.

Cisco grinned, but he still looked a little confused – like he couldn’t imagine why food would be necessary right now. Caitlin had told him that Cisco had been notorious for skipping meals when he was in deep with his experiments.

*

“So are you gonna tell me what’s up with you today?” Iris asked impatiently.

Barry contemplated that for a moment. On the one hand, there was no problem, there really wasn’t. But on the other hand, maybe he’d been going about this all wrong. He forgot how often Iris was the dispenser of surprisingly useful advice and motivational speeches. Before he could stop himself, he was blurting out, “I thought _I_ was supposed to be Cisco’s best friend.”

Iris gave him a strange look. Whatever Barry had been expecting her reaction to be, this wasn’t it. “You’re...jealous?” she clarified.

“You saw that! It was like the rest of us weren’t even there! And I sounded like a moron with the transfer matrix thing,” Barry said as he fisted his hair, ruining the styling he’d given it this morning. This was not how the day was supposed to go.

“Wait...is that why you were slaving over those beam dynamics textbooks all week? Do you even find that stuff interesting? I thought you said it was boring.”

“Of course I don’t! But how am I supposed to keep up with them,” he thrust a frantic finger in the direction of the poster displays, where Cisco and Hartley were animatedly discussing something with a stern-looking professor, “if I don’t know anything about this stuff?”

Iris was still staring at him curiously.

“Just be yourself. Since when have you tried to be something you’re not around Cisco? I’m sure he doesn’t care, and he has Hartley for that stuff anyway.”

Barry scowled.

”What now?” Iris sighed.

“That’s part of the problem. I can barely spend any time with Cisco without Hartley being there too.”

Iris made a show of finishing her burger before finally speaking. “...Are you sure this isn’t about more than just friends?” she asked.

“What are you talking about?” He had no idea what Iris meant; this had everything to do with friendship.

“All I’m saying is you keep gushing about all the ‘good times’ with Cisco in the old timeline. And you never said you guys weren’t together then, so–”

“What?!” Barry felt his face transitioning to bright red. He wasn’t sure if it was the Speed Force at play or just the feeling of being whammied, but it had happened fast.

“That’s not...I don’t have...what…?”

Iris’s sigh was sympathetic, like she was preparing to explain something to a small child, and Barry would have been offended if his brain hadn’t shorted out two exchanges ago.

“Do you complain when I go on dates with Scott?”

“No, but that’s different.”

“It is?”

“Yeah, it just...of course it is.” He didn’t know how yet, but it was different.

“Whatever you say. You should really think about that, though, because you sound like a maniac.”

Iris pushed her chair back and went to deliver the guys their hot dogs and Barry watched her go, resolutely not thinking about what she had said.

 

* * *

 

 

It took Barry all of five seconds to realize that Iris was right, though in all fairness, in Speed Force time he had already worked through all of his feelings and the pros and cons of his newfound (er, ‘newfound’) crush on Cisco.

It was the way his heart sped up whenever Cisco touched him. The way his skin lit up when he sped around the city with Cisco’s arms wrapped around his neck. The way Cisco’s laugh caused his stomach to do little somersaults.

He wondered when this new development had occurred. Was it even new? It had taken Iris calling him out for him to notice it, but he hadn’t been acting much differently around Cisco. Sure, they were still patching up the metaphorical holes in the road, but there wasn’t anything fundamentally other about his mannerisms around this Cisco – he was still the nerdy, sharp scientist Barry had always known, except maybe with the emerging title of ‘superhero’ now.

And then he moved on to the pros and cons of extending those feelings to a relationship with Cisco. He really should’ve stopped there because he was certain Cisco didn’t feel the same way and he didn’t want to raise his hopes, but once the gears started turning, he couldn’t help himself.

Pro: he would be dating _Cisco_.

Con: it would ruin their friendship if his feelings weren’t reciprocated.

Pro: snuggling against Cisco’s beard would probably be amazing.

Pro: he would get to carry Cisco around all the time, arms draped over his neck inclusive.

Crap, wasn’t that supposed to be a con? Checks and balances and all that? That was how he knew he was in too deep.

And because Barry was a coward, he decided to say nothing to Cisco. He justified it by telling himself that it was too soon, that they’d only just reached a new horizon in their friendship after the pain of the time jump and he had to wait awhile longer.

*

Instead, Barry opted to ask a few subtle questions about Cisco’s new friendship with Hartley all the while telling himself he wasn’t jealous. Not at all. He’d even gotten coffee with Hartley at Jitter’s yesterday and the guy was a delight. Still, he asked his questions anyway.

“So, you and Hartley, huh?” Barry aimed for casual and thought he did a pretty good job hitting the mark.

“Um…?” Maybe not.

“ _‘I have been and always shall be you friend’_ , etc. etc., am I right?”

Cisco barked out a laugh. “Oh, _that_. Hartley was just razzing me, dude. I mean, he’s one of the good guys now, but he’s still a sarcastic dick. We’re just friends.”

Barry wasn’t following at all. “I was just wondering. Because that’s like a best friend line, right?” he asked.

And now Cisco was staring at him like he’d grown an extra head or three. “Sure, it’s a ‘best friend’ thing. Don’t worry, you still got dibs on that line, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Barry grinned, relieved.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry passed the time by poring over the data Thawne had given him. With Harry and Cisco’s help, he solved the speed equation and sustained Mach 3 for the first time.

There was finally renewed hope in the fight against Zoom, only he prayed that this fresh burst of speed would be enough to go against the V9 that was almost certainly coursing through the other speedster’s veins.

They still needed a way to return to Earth-2, though, and for that, he definitely needed Cisco’s help. There wasn’t much he could do while the others scrutinized complicated-looking tomes and plastered the whiteboard with convoluted formulas; his speed only helped him with familiar material, but these interdimensional equations might as well have been Satan spawn to him.

It was late one night when Cisco let out a labored yawn. “Okay, calling it quits for tonight. See you tomorrow.”

Barry led with the bombshell.

“I’m thinking of opening STAR Labs up again. Been thinking of it for a while actually, there was just so much,” he gestured between them with a shrug, “between us that I thought waiting was for the best. Having you guys back would be great, though.”

Cisco sobered up immediately, but there was a hesitance in his shoulders. “I don’t know...I want to, I really do. It’s just...I’ve got a really great thing going with Hartley and Harry and it feels like we’re finally starting to make a difference.”

Right. They had finally nabbed a wealthy investor to kick off a compact electrical grid and clean water system in Central America. All of them had celebrated the night before and Barry had even made some inroads with Caitlin, who had slowly been coming round to the idea that he really was an entirely different person than the Barry she had known for the past year.

“You could always do that here,” Barry suggested. “STAR hasn’t been in the public eye for a couple of years now, but we could make it something worthwhile. More than what Eobard did with it.”

Cisco didn’t shoot the idea down right away, which Barry supposed was about all he could hope for. “Give me some time to think about it and talk to the others.”

 

* * *

 

 

A day later, Barry bit the bullet and confessed to Iris that she’d been right on the money with her observations. She was going to be horribly smug for the next week, but that was fine because Iris was a genius.

“Clear your calendar tonight. I’m taking Hartley out to dinner and bowling with Linda, which means that you,” she jabbed him in the chest, “have Cisco all to yourself.”

Barry knew he owed her dinner for like, the rest of his life or something equally as grand.

“Don’t mess this up,” was all she said as she walked out of his lab, heels clacking loudly behind her.

He breathed in deep. He could do this, no pressure. Just a nice quiet night with Cisco followed by the bombshell of professing his more-than-a crush. The only thing hanging in the balance: their friendship. With his luck, Cisco would let him down gently because he wasn’t capable of hurting anyone (last week, he’d spent an hour trying to shoo a fly out of his apartment until Barry took pity and blew it out the window with a few well-timed rotations of his arms) and then things would be awkward between them until finally, Cisco wouldn’t be able to take it anymore and stayed away from him entirely.

No pressure.

*

This was it. He was going to do it.

He’d been vibrating with nervous energy all night, his skin cold and clammy to the touch. Cisco had even offered him a couple of dozen aspirin, which had done nothing to quell his nerves.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay, Bar? We can call it a night if you need to rest. You went kinda hard today on that meta.”

“I…”

 _I think I might be in love with you_. He’d rehearsed this. Better to rip the bandaid off quickly than prolong the suffering.

“You?” Cisco asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

Barry was going to vomit.

“I...I think I…”

Cisco’s phone rang and Barry startled so badly he nearly phased through the couch.

“Whoops, sorry, gotta take this. Gimme a sec.”

And just like that, the moment was broken. Barry rushed to the bathroom and doused his face under the tap, the chill of it helping to center him. Ordinarily, he only sweat this much after running at super speed, but apparently tonight was an exception. He dabbed at his brow with a Kleenex, then whipped his t-shirt off to get at his torso when he realized how damp his armpits were. Cisco wouldn’t care, but tonight was important, so he spritzed his shirt with a spurt of air freshener (and made a face at the smell) before returning to the living room.

“There you are. What did you want to tell me before?”

Round two. Do or die.

“Oh, I uh – I just wanted–”

“Okay, sorry, I swear I’ll stop interrupting you in a minute and I was gonna wait until tomorrow to tell you this, but since you’re already here, I wanted to drop the good news now. That was our investor and she okay’d it. All of us are moving back to STAR and she’s funding us.”

Barry let out a shaky breath, and then he was crashing into Cisco and hugging him tight because there really were no words to express how happy he was.

“Can’t...breathe…” Cisco choked out after a minute.

“Sorry!” Barry jumped away. “That’s – that’s great, Cisco! It’ll be awesome to have you back.”

“Right? The others have really been wanting to move back too, but we were just waiting to hear from the sponsors first. Anyway, your turn.”

This was the perfect opportunity: tell Cisco now while there was good news to pad a rejection. But the stakes were higher as well. He only just now had the team back together and was loathe to do anything to jeopardize that.

“I...it’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

Barry’s nerves were shot. Any longer and he’d be a puddle of jelly that Cisco would have to vacuum off of his carpet. As it was, he wished he could turn off his metabolism because he needed at least a dozen drinks right now.

“You sure, dude? You seemed pretty excited before.”

“Yeah, and besides, we should be celebrating! Let’s get the others and go!” Barry tried not to notice how high-pitched his voice sounded.

He dragged Cisco of out his apartment and steadfastly trampled out all thoughts of love from his mind.

*

Iris nearly smacked him when he told her what had happened.

 

* * *

 

 

It was a Friday when Cisco and Harry had a breakthrough with the breaches. Theoretically, Cisco should’ve been able to tap into his vibing powers, which were themselves based on the very foundations of the multiverse, to reopen a portal to Earth-2.

They were all of them invigorated by the new discovery and more determined than ever to put an end to this battle once and for all.

Of course, with the renewed sense of urgency came a renewed sense of danger. Barry shuddered to think what would happen if Zoom caught wind of his feelings for Cisco; the nightmares of Zoom taking Patty resurfaced, whispered accusations of ‘you’re too late’ heavy in the air. There was no question: he’d have to table any confessions of love until after the impending fight. And that was if he even made it out alive.

 

* * *

 

 

“No.”

“Excuse me?” Cisco asked incredulously as he crossed his arms.

“No.”

“No?”

“It’s too dangerous,” Barry said bluntly. Cisco had pulled him aside and insisted on going through the breach with him as if that was somehow a sane proposition instead of quite possibly the worst idea in the history of the multiverse.

“You were pretty excited about having a field partner before,” Cisco pointed out.

“This is _Zoom_ though, not some kids’ game. You could die, Cisco! If I lose, we could all die.” Why wasn’t Cisco getting it?

“Exactly. I’m not any safer here than I am with you. And I have actual combat powers now, I could help in a fight.”

“No. I won’t – I _can’t_ let anyone else die because of me.” God, if he lost Cisco, he didn’t know what he’d do. It would be like when he’d lost his childhood dog Aspen, only about a million times worse. It had taken Joe and Iris exactly twenty-three days to peel him off the floor. There was no way he was putting Cisco in the direct line of fire – he’d sooner die.

Cisco didn’t say anything, just gave him a determined look. Barry knew that look.

“Fight me.”

“...What?” Barry was completely taken aback. He had expected a digging in of the heels, but not this.

“Fight me,” Cisco repeated. “If you win, I’ll stay here. But if I win, you have to take me with you.”

Barry considered that. The last thing he wanted to do was engage in a literal fist fight with Cisco. There was no doubt that he was powerful, but the full extent of his skillset wasn’t known yet and he hadn’t even been tried in battle save for a lucky shot at the theater that time – Cisco had said as much himself afterward. Then again, Barry would do whatever it took to keep his friends safe – Cisco especially – and if that meant it had to come to blows, then so be it.

He just wanted to finish this quickly without Cisco feeling too bad about himself when all was said and done.

*

Barry crouched in his signature pose, one knee bent against the cool metal of the pipeline, the other bent towards his chin.

Across from him, Cisco slid the goggles over his eyes and cracked his knuckles.

“Ready?” Barry asked.

Cisco nodded.

“Get set. _Go_.”

Barry elected for a head-on charge. Only one of them had super speed, and he hoped he could get a clean hit in before Cisco could react. Time slowed around him as he dashed forward, winding his arm back for a shot to the solar plexus, putting enough force behind it to give some serious blowback but not enough to actually leave a mark. Before his fist could make contact, two things had happened simultaneously: a piercing clap hit his ears and he was suddenly airborne and tumbling on the smooth tiling.

Well, okay. He’d gotten sloppy. Even a blur of lightning running in a straight line was still easy to hit, he supposed.

“...Are you okay?” Cisco called out. He looked like he wanted to run over and check if Barry was injured, which, while he loved that about Cisco, was the precise reason he didn’t want him tagging along. Zoom would take advantage of that hesitation and rip him to shreds.

Barry dusted himself off, the creak of the leather joints of the suit breaking the silence.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said and charged again. He ran circles around Cisco, zigzagged this way and that, and slipped easily in and out of blind spots, intending to wear him down or fluster him into making a mistake. Cisco didn’t seem to be taking the bait, though, as he stood stock still. Now was as good a time as any to make his move, he supposed. He chose to approach from behind, but by the time he executed his move, Cisco had already let off a shock wave behind him and Barry couldn’t swerve in time to avoid it.

It was a direct hit.

How? He shook the dizziness from his head as Cisco adjusted the goggles.

Of course. The _goggles_. That must’ve been how he was predicting the course of this fight so easily.

Barry made a grab for them, but just as his fingers were about to connect with the frames, they went _through_ Cisco’s head. He was so shocked that he tripped and his entire body went into Cisco’s and out the other side.

“Thought you were the only one who could do that?” Cisco gibed.

They went back and forth for a few minutes with Barry making little progress. Cisco seemed prepared for every move he tried to make, and while it was easy enough to dodge his sonic blasts, Barry had been countered and thrown back every time he’d tried to go on the offensive.

After the third time, a small spark of frustration rose up in him. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. There was too much on the line for him to lose here. Even if this was a battle purely for show, he couldn’t let Cisco march to his death. He wouldn’t.

*

Barry looked frustrated as he got up for the fifth time in a row.

 _Good_ , Cisco thought. Because he was probably just as frustrated as Barry right now. He could pull his own weight, damn it, and he wasn’t going to wait on the sidelines while Barry put his life on the line.

*

No more holding back. Barry raced in a wide arc around Cisco, who probably knew what was coming next, but he had to end this. Cisco may have had his vibes, but he could only process stimuli so quickly. In the corner of his eye, he saw Cisco brace himself, but Barry did his best to make his movements as erratic as possible; when he was about to strike, he held off before feinting again until even he wasn’t sure what his plan of attack was.

Rather than defend himself, Cisco smashed a curled fist into the ground. In slow motion, Barry saw everything begin to vibrate until he was blasted violently backwards, the entire structure of the pipeline seeming to tremble.

“Ow…” When he tried to sit up, his entire body cried out in protest. There were knots in his back and kinks in his muscles and he was utterly spent. Even opening his eyes hurt.

  
“Barry?” Cisco’s face swam in his vision.

“Hmm?” Forming syllables was hard.

“I’m coming with you.”

“Yeah.”

Cisco reached out a hand to pull him up and Barry groaned with the effort of it, leaning on Cisco to steady himself.

 

* * *

 

 

“Ready? When I open the breach, Zoom’s coming out.”

Cisco’s eyes were focused straight ahead and he was all business as he relayed what he’d seen with the goggles.

Barry nodded. He was as prepared as he would ever be.

With an outstretched hand, Cisco seemingly conjured the portal out of thin air, its billowing, reflective folds beckoning to them ominously.

And there was Zoom, jumping menacingly out of the crease. On instinct, Barry reached an arm out protectively in front of Cisco as he turned to make sure he was safe.[2] He realized his mistake a split second later when Zoom came barrelling at him. The sonic wave that originated from Cisco’s fingertips registered in Barry’s periphery, but the other speedster dodged with ease and continued on his trajectory. Zoom had an arm stretched out toward him and Barry watched the scene unfold in slow motion, stomach plummeting when it became obvious he was still, after everything they’d gone through – after losing so much to solve the speed equation – not fast enough.

His modified form and gait were no match for whatever speed serum the demon in front of him had injected himself with.

He watched on in horror as Cisco was sent flying into and through the opposite wall. This had been a bad idea, he _knew_ it was, and still Barry had let him come along. He should’ve run Cisco out of the there the second the breach had opened and come back solo.

In the next second, he felt his shoulders crash into the drywall behind him as Zoom held him by the throat. Barry tried to throw a punch, fightback, _anything_ , but with his air supply being rapidly depleted, the options were limited.

“I don’t need you alive to take your speed.” Hot breath from that rattling voice hit him in the face like the putrid stench of death. As Zoom lowered a vibrating hand to Barry’s chest, his only thought was whether Cisco had escaped.

But death didn’t come for him.

There was a far off cry that sounded suspiciously like his name before he was sliding to the ground with Zoom on top of him. The black suit flickered with its trademark blue lightning before going out entirely, like a candle suddenly snuffed out.

Zoom tried to lift himself up but collapsed, unconscious. Seeing Cisco stagger towards him forced Barry into motion.

“Come on, we have to get out of here before he comes after us,” he said, practically dragging Cisco behind him.

“I...I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Cisco said sluggishly.

“What? He’s still breathing. Let’s go.”

“Just get him into the pipeline...I promise it won’t be a problem. I’ll explain when we’re back.”

Barry did as he was told, only relaxing after Zoom was locked away.

*

“Whatever you did to him seems like it’s permanent,” Caitlin said, tapping away on her tablet. “Although I’m still not sure what it is you did.”

“Me neither,” Barry added. One second, Zoom was about to kill him, and the next, he was motionless and stripped of his speed.

“I’m not really sure,” Cisco said quietly. Barry couldn’t help but feel like he was avoiding his gaze.

“When Zoom hit me, something just...clicked and I saw _everything_. This universe. Earth-2. Did you know there’s an Earth-9999?” Cisco shook his head as if to regain focus. “I – the Speed Force is a physical thing. I saw it. I saw Barry and Zoom connected to it, and I just – I reached out and pulled Zoom away from it.”

“Incredible.” Harry sounded awestruck.

Barry took stock of the others. Caitlin and Iris were smiling fondly. Joe looked proud. Hartley was somewhere between impressed and aloof, if he had to guess.

“You guys aren’t scared of me?” The question was addressed to all of them, but Barry knew it had really been directed at himself.

“Of course not. If there had to be anyone with this power...I’m glad it’s you, Cisco.”

It terrified him that there existed a human who could sever his connection to the Speed Force. To what made him _him_. But he wasn’t lying just now; he trusted Cisco with his life. He trusted that Cisco would never hurt him, at least not willingly.

Cisco gave him a small smile.

 

* * *

 

 

Things slowly but surely approached something resembling normal.

The team had finally moved back into STAR Labs. Cisco had wasted no time in redecorating his workroom. Caitlin had taken an odd amount of pleasure in upgrading the med bay. Harry had insisted that they run (carefully monitored) experiments to test the boundaries of Cisco’s growing powers, which was how they had discovered that the converse was also true: Cisco could amplify a speedster’s connection to the Speed Force. Barry had volunteered all too willingly as a test subject; he had been a little nervous at first, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him, and besides, this was _Cisco_.

The feeling had been exhilarating when Cisco had reached his hand out and connected with him. They’d been forced by Caitlin to go slowly, lest Barry went the same way as Eliza, but Cisco’s power seemed to be limitless. Barry had eventually reached Mach 5 without breaking a sweat, no sign of his body being overwhelmed or overloaded.

Cisco had grinned at him and called it ‘au naturel,’ which caused the lump in his throat to do little backflips as he tried not to think of how Cisco’s powers complemented his perfectly.

It was only when he’d left a trail of flames behind him that it was unanimously decided he should slow down.

He thought of how now would be the perfect time to tell Cisco everything, but then he thought how much easier it would be to just...not. He was already so happy – to want more just felt greedy, especially when there was so much lose. In the entire time they’d known each other, Cisco hadn’t indicated any interest.

Still, Barry couldn’t help but steal the occasional glance at Cisco from across the Cortex. Sometimes, it felt like the others were watching him out of the corner of his eye, but when he used his very considerable speed to catch them in the act, they were always looking anywhere but.

 

* * *

 

 

Barry spent time with Cisco almost daily now, but they still set aside time each week for the vibing sessions.

“I can’t believe there’s still so much I haven’t seen,” Cisco said.

Laying back in his usual position on Cisco’s unfairly comfortable couch, Barry was completely sated from the home-cooked meal Cisco had whipped up. He hadn’t even known what a plantain was until tonight and he was already hooked.

Cisco sat on the floor and used the couch as a backrest like he always did, and when he reached out a hand for contact, Barry didn't question it. By now, Cisco’s powers had developed to the point where he didn’t even need the connection anymore, able to go off just the goggles and a verbal description of the scene he was looking for, but it felt like tradition.

So their hands clasped tightly, Barry said, “Prepare to witness the time Dr. Light blinded me and you walked me through a date with Patty on the comms.”

“ _No_. Holy shit, that’s amazing.”

Barry let himself relax as Cisco honed in on the memory. Sometimes, Cisco shared tidbits of his timeline too, but only the happy bits, Barry knew, like how he’d discovered Hartley was the biggest nerd of them all and could quote _Harry Potter_ at will.

Occasionally, he asked Barry about his relationship with Kendra and Barry couldn’t help the small pang of jealousy that surged in him. Had their positions been reversed, though, he would’ve wanted to know all of the details too, so he couldn’t be too upset about it. Cisco could’ve easily vibed for it himself, but told Barry “I like the way you tell the story,” and there was no real way he could say ‘no’ to that.

 

* * *

 

 

Iris began to nag him about Cisco again, telling Barry he was being ‘unbearable.’

He stubbornly ignored her.

As it turned out, though, the choice was taken entirely out of his hands.

Hartley had invited him over to his apartment to show him some new gadget or other that would help amplify his lightning bolts; to say Barry had been excited would’ve been an understatement. Harry had been there too, which, in retrospect, should’ve immediately sent up red flags.

“This was supposed to be used on supervillains, but I guess it’s for a good cause,” Hartley said, tinkering with the frayed-looking wires on his desk.

“Just do it already. I’m sick of not being able to concentrate in the lab,” Harry grumbled as he popped on a pair of earplugs.

Barry was about to ask what they were talking about when Hartley turned around and there was a faint buzzing sound and suddenly, the floor was dropping beneath his feet and he was floating, floating, floating. Were those the gauntlets Hartley was wearing?

He felt strangely relaxed and disconnected. Hartley was saying something to him, and when had he gotten so close? But then Hartley was telling him to sit, which Barry thought was a wonderful idea.

The dull ringing continued and it felt like someone was dragging a feather across his brain, or better yet, massaging it. Hartley was speaking to him in a gentle, low voice and Barry was being slathered in honey, or at least, he couldn’t think of a better reason as to why he felt so satiated. He was aware Hartley had asked him something just as he was aware his mouth was working out a reply, but he couldn’t for the life of him grasp any of the words being said, like he was pulling on a well-oiled rope and the harder he pulled, the further it slipped away from him.

And that wasn’t right – it was important to figure out what he was saying -– but then Hartley was whispering something to him again and he relaxed even further, almost melting into the floor. When had he decided to lay down?

Barry was unaware of how much time had passed. It hardly even mattered when he felt so good, like the lie-in he’d been meaning to have for years but had just never gotten around to.

Suddenly, there was a snap and the buzzing receded and he was completely alert. The first thing he noticed was how good he felt, as if someone had given him a hundred back massages. The next thing, or rather, pair of things, he noticed were the identical smug looks Harry and Hartley were giving him.

Had something happened? He tried to recall, but it was like a forgotten dream that drifted further out of reach the more he thought about it. If he tried really hard, he was certain he could remember, but it was easier – just felt better – to...not.[3]

“Okay, we’ll see you at the lab tomorrow,” Hartley said brightly.

Barry nodded and turned to leave.

He didn’t even notice Hartley hadn’t shown him that gadget he’d been so fascinated to finally see.

*

When he got to Cisco’s place that night, they’d watched a movie as usual. Cisco had even quoted _that line_ to him at the end of _Wrath of Khan_ , which had Barry feeling all warm inside.

But as soon as Cisco had finished speaking, it was like a missing gear had clicked into place. He turned to Cisco.

“I think I’m in love with you.”

His mouth was suddenly operating completely independently from his brain as he told Cisco the tale of his rather embarrassing crush on him. He looked on in horror as he spared no detail of his account – how he wanted to know what Cisco’s beard felt like on his mouth, the pitter patter of his heart when Cisco clutched his hand for a vibe, all of it.

Barry desperately tried to stand up, to run away, or even phase through the floor if that would end his misery, but it was like someone had flipped the ‘off’ switch and his muscles were refusing to cooperate, the control of his body in someone else’s hands. As it was, Cisco had gone from shocked to astonished to absolutely walloped. Barry resigned himself to watching the trainwreck.

Was lightning psychosis an actual thing? Caitlin had said it wasn’t after all, but he could pretend it was. It was just about the only plausible explanation for what was happening right now. Cisco would probably buy it.

When he – or more specifically, his _mouth_ – was finally, blessedly done with his confession, he felt a weight lift; just as quickly as it had left him, his muscle control was back online.

“I’m so sorry. I’m just gonna go…” Barry said dejectedly. It was so catastrophic that he even forgot to use his speed, which was how Cisco had caught up with him at the door.

“Wait, Barry. You had to have known that I’ve felt the same way about you for ages now, right?

Barry’s brain was dangerously close to shorting out again. “W-what?”

“I mean, I’ve been quoting the Spock line to you ever since I met you. I was beginning to think you were either oblivious or just not interested.”

“What? I thought that was a friendship thing.”

“Yeah, ‘friendship,’” Cisco said, complete with air quotes. “That’s like, the gayest line in in the history of television, dude.”

Oh. Things were beginning to make sense now. “No one ever told me that. I had no idea…” he said feebly.

Cisco’s jaw dropped in disbelief, and okay, Barry didn’t think it was _that_ big of an oversight, but his cheeks burned nonetheless.

“So, we’re good…?” Barry asked tentatively.

“C’mere, you.” And Cisco was pulling him by the collar and kissing him hard. Even seeing Cisco come at him in speedster time had still surprised him, but then he was kissing back just as earnestly, using his abilities to flash them around the room because...well, because this was a cause for celebration.

There were so many things Barry wanted to say, but they had time. He could bask in this moment for as long as he lived.

He had fucked up stupendously last year, and he’d learned to never take his friends for granted ever again, but sitting here like this with Cisco, he knew he had definitely gained more than than he’d lost – it had just taken him a while to see it.

**Author's Note:**

> 1 Barry challenged a Hells Angel member to a drink off to save Cisco from getting the crap beat out of him. Referenced in the Chronicles of Cisco tumblr, managed by the Flash team. [link](http://chroniclesofcisco.tumblr.com/post/131045942005/dim-the-lights-nuke-some-pop-secret-and-prime)[return to text]
> 
> 2 In the 2x18 promo, it looks like Cisco opens up a breach and Zoom jumps out of it, immediately prompting Barry to throw an arm out in front of Cisco. [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ibqUVYcmiI)[return to text]
> 
> 3 In the comics, Hartley figures out how to control people with a particular frequency, though he mostly uses it on his pet rats. [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_\(comics\)#Powers_and_abilities)[return to text]
> 
> 4 Barry is an enormous hypocrite, even though he means well.[return to text]


End file.
